GAINESVILLE, Fla.  Florida coach Urban Meyer said after Thursday night's practice that senior tight end Cornelius Ingram has been diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and will have season-ending surgery next week.

An MRI revealed the tear, which was suffered at Tuesday's practice. It didn't become obvious until later he had a serious problem.

Ingram will rehabilitate the knee and get ready for the NFL draft.
NCAA rules allow athletes five years to complete four seasons of eligibility. Since the Hawthorne, Fla., recruit used 2004 as a redshirt season as a true freshman, this is his fifth year at UF. The NCAA allows petitions for a sixth year of eligibility when an athlete has missed two seasons because of injuries and under special circumstances.

But Ingram left the football team in the fall of 2004 and redshirted. Instead of playing football, he joined the basketball team in October and played the entire 2004-05 season. So his redshirt does not qualify as a medical injury in '04, making him ineligible for a sixth year under the current NCAA guidelines.

"It hurts,'' Meyer said of Ingram's loss. "It's the hardest part of this game, hardest part of coaching, hardest part of playing, especially a guy like that that does everything right and is one class away from graduating. His future, his career, I don't think will be hurt. . . . He's such a great leader, a great kid, one of my favorite players of all time.''

Ingram caught 34 passes for 508 yards and seven touchdowns last season and turned down a chance to leave early for the NFL. The league's draft advisory committee projected Ingram to likely go in the first three rounds of this year's selections. Ingram was on the Mackey Award watch list, which goes to the nation's top tight end.
Many of the players visited Ingram on Wednesday.

"He's a great player, so I've got to try to step up and do the best I can,'' backup Aaron Hernandez said.
Added fellow tight end Tate Casey, who could also take up part of the slack, after Thursday's practice: "I saw (Ingram) last night. He's doing good. He's in high spirits.''

Meyer said a lot of the players took Ingram's injury "real hard.''

"He's doing good for being back his senior year and not being able to play,'' said Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. "It's tough. It's the game he loves to play and it was going to be a big year for him. He's not going to be able to experience it so it's a little bit of a letdown for everybody but he's also a very resilient guy, someone who's going to get motivated and go work and try to make a big impact on the next level.''

Tebow said more than a dozen players visited Ingram's home.

"It takes away a huge asset for us and he's a key guy,'' Tebow said. "You can't replace someone like C.I. but the thing about being here at Florida is you've got guys that can step up and that can play, and not replace him but come in there and support what he would have done.''

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